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Room treatment-I was afraid of this

There I was with a dedicated room-not ideal being nearly square and a less than 8' ceiling-and barely adequate music, not awful but the system had sounded better. I tried moving things about some with differing results but nothing satisfying. Part of the problem was moving from a 30x35 foot room with an 18' ceiling. I was used to the speakers being well out into the room, far apart and sitting pretty far away. I used the odd integer matrix method promoted by Vandersteen but hadn't considered either placing them closer to the wall or moving near field. Nick at GIK recommended both, as well as some furniture rearranging that made a very pleasant difference. That was all the encouragement I needed to order bass traps, 1st and 2nd reflection panels and front and rear wall treatments. Installed them by about 4pm Monday and listened until 2 am, back at it last night from 3pm-1am. It's just as so many have said, this is a serious component upgrade. It is matched in scale only when I went from Vandersteen 2CE's to Chapman T-77SE's. Not a single aspect of the listening experience that isn't enhanced. So now the problem; I suppose a lot of the glowing stuff folks make of cables, power cords, fuses, and on and on also make significant differences. How long can it be before I'm off and running on that stuff?
128x128wideload
milpai's avatar
milpai
2,373 posts
 
wideload,
I am with you on the front wall. My loudspeakers are 5 feet from front wall. And 38% would roughly mean 7 feet from front wall. I am not sure if that would be ideal for the listening position, since I would only be 2 feet away from them.
sbank's avatar
sbank
3,378 posts
 
Grover Huffman cables are great value, don't worry about those, but agree that stock power cables should be upgraded.

If it's something you could live with trying an across the corner setup is worth trying on a rainy day. The is often the ticket in a squarish room. Cheers,
Spencer 
wideload's avatar
wideload OP
147 posts
 
Agree sbank about cables. The Huffman's will stay. 
garrettc
40 posts
 
Put bass traps in the corners of the room.  Personally I think high end cables are hocus pocus.  If you can't hear the difference stop right there and re-educate your ears.
oldschool1
45 posts
 
Hello gentleman...
It’s almost intimidating reading about the exotic systems and what you do with them. I have a rather challenging room, irregular in shape and all mirror behind me. I’ve moved the sofa 14" from the rear mirrored wall and propped a couple large pillows behind where my head position is. With and without the pillows, there’s a huge difference so I am a believer in room treatments. Plus what I remember from sound engineering school.
As far as IC’s, I budget about $80 - $100 per IC, most all Audioquest. Speakers are Paradigm Signature S2 FL/FR, Paradigm Studio 20 V5 SL&SR, 3 REL sub base, and the weakest point is my center, Paradigm CC-490. Amp is an Anthem A5, Integra DTR-50.3 which now serves as my pre, Oppo BDP 103, and just added a REGA Apollo R. This system is dual purpose HT and music. When I listen to music, it’s direct stereo with no eq, only one sub base REL R528. the marriage of the S2’s and the R-528 are awesome!
I guess the point to all this is.. Room acoustics are a huge link in the chain. IC’s are a subtle but noticeable link, speaker position, huge link, components, huge link. Every component, IC, room characteristic, makes huge and subtle differences. All this keeps us more than busy and fun to boot...
Oh, I'm also adding a TEAC X200R to my system. Plan to record some favorite stuff and bathe in nirvana. I understand analog tape rivals vinyl....
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